Review of Sagrada Reset

Overall Rating: 6/10 サクラダリセット, or Sagrada Reset, is a perfect example of an excellent idea with very poor execution. The story follows a group of middle-to-high-school-age students who live in the fictional town of Sagrada, Japan, where about 50% of the town's population has special abilities. The abilities can range from something as simple as having a perfect photographic memory to something as incredible as temporary matter displacement or localized time travel. The show has some really thrilling moments, but overall these are bogged down in heavy dialog, poorly written characters, and a story full of plot holes that moves at a snail's pace, intercutwith hilariously out-of-place KitKat commercials. Gotta get that #spon, right?

The biggest redeeming quality of this anime, in my opinion, is that it acts as a great supplement to your studies if you are learning Japanese. There is tons of dialogue to listen to, a few moments of interesting Japanese wordplay, and the lead female protagonist even speaks entirely in the polite register for the vast majority of the series. If you're learning Japanese and you would like a show to watch to help you with your aural comprehension, this is a pretty good one if you can keep up with how quickly they tend to speak.

Story: 7/10
In spite of myself, I quite enjoyed the story and the world that was built throughout the series. The story follows Asai Kei (浅井恵) and Haruki Misora (春樹美空) as they work together to make their town a better place using their combined abilities to turn back time and prevent small tragedies from occurring. Along the way, they unravel a sinister plot by a member of the Bureau, an organization dedicated to overseeing the abilities within Sagrada and ensuring that the dangerous ones remain in check. It's sort of like a slice of life turned mystery drama. It deals with themes of identity, compassion, righteousness, and some weird ones that are tough to summarize into a single word (such as whether a clone is close enough to the original to replace the original should the original die).

The pacing is strange and sometimes it seems like things happen in an unconventional order. That is mostly forgivable, as the show does revolve around time travel. Unfortunately, by the end of the series, you're left feeling like there are so many strings left untied, and the finale is extremely underwhelming. The group of students all, serendipitously, have abilities that seem to mesh perfectly together with each other to allow some pretty crazy things to happen later in the show, but it does seem a little too convenient at times. The thing that grated on me the most, however, was that there are many characters whose motivations are never explained, and the ones whose motivations are explained make little to no sense.

Art: 7/10
The art was the aspect of the show that gripped me first and got me to watch the first episode back when it aired in Spring 2016. It is a really beautiful show, even though it's lacking in terms of energy. The lighting and scenery is always gorgeous. The character designs are mostly pretty well done, with some fairly obvious references to other Manga/Anime (Michiru, for example, looks like she was pulled straight out of One Piece). My biggest complaint, though, is that the CG cars seem extremely out of place and awkward within the otherwise relatively traditional-feeling anime setting.

Sound: 5/10
The music for this show is fairly underwhelming. The first OP and ED theme for the show are both fairly bland. The second OP is much better, but the second ED theme is just... poorly structured and feels amateurish. The themes that play throughout the show tend to be simple dramatic piano pieces; they fit the show, but they don't really add much and could probably be swapped out with something else without changing the feel very much.

The voice acting is... dull, to put it lightly. This is not the fault of the seiyuu, but I think a problem with the direction and the overall tone of the show. Everyone is very matter of fact. Everyone talks quickly and drones on in a monotone. For certain characters, like Souma Sumire, this makes sense, but this is the case for every single character in the show. It feels depressive and lifeless.

Characters: 3/10
This is the biggest failing of Sagrada Reset. The only interesting thing about the characters is their abilities. It seems like they didn't even have any thought put into them beyond that. Haruki, the lead female, is literally a blank slate who does anything Kei asks without question. She could be swapped out with a first generation iPod Touch and the story would be essentially unchanged. Kei is very much a Mary Sue, as he somehow miraculously is able to outsmart and outpredict even the characters who have access to far more information, power, and insight than he ever could, and on top of it all he's wildly charismatic and can talk people into seeing things his way with relative ease. The supporting cast is far more interesting than the main duo, but they are barely touched upon outside of Souma Sumire.

The biggest faux pas here was the introduction of Oka Eri as an antagonist. She has zero motivation aside from that she wants to make Kei unhappy. They do not bother to explain anything beyond that, and when they do delve into her backstory, it doesn't result in any clearer understanding of why she hates Kei enough to go out of her way to screw him over. Then, after a few episodes, she's relegated to a background character who we barely ever see again.

Enjoyment: 6/10
All in all, I didn't hate this anime. I hated a lot of parts of this anime, but I still watched it all the way through. If you're studying Japanese and you want to watch a show with lots of dialogue and lots of different types of speech, then you'll probably enjoy this one in spite of its shortcomings. Just don't hold your breath for Haruki's character development.